


Rainy Day

by bloodandcream



Series: The more the merrier [16]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 11:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3325670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodandcream/pseuds/bloodandcream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finding a tucked away little corner, he flopped down on a chair and tried to wrangle his crying child into a better mood. Emma was drenched. And unhappy. Taking off his flannel shirt, he wrapped her up and tried to soak up some of the water. The only down side was, his full sleeve tattoos were visible now in just a black t-shirt and passer by’s kept glaring at him and Emma, who would not stop sobbing hysterically.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rainy Day

Dean scowled at the grey cloudy skies, growing ominously cloudier by the minute. He sighed, mentally cursed his luck, and wondered if they should head back home. But Emma was still running around screeching as she clambered over the playground, swinging on the monkey bars and launching herself down the slide. Just a few more minutes, he was sure the sun could hold out for that long.

The day had started out so promising, with powdered sugar exploded everywhere in the kitchen after pancakes and the Little Mermaid watched from the safety of a pillow fort before Dean could coax Emma outside for exercise. Dean had just won custody rights to every Saturday of the month, as well as every other Sunday and four hours on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Emma was five years old already, and he was still fighting tooth and nail for every hour he wanted to see her.

Of course, he was paying Lydia child support, and had been for two years since they confirmed that he was Emma’s father. Lydia didn’t want anything to do with him. It had been just a one night stand. The way Dean figures it, she just wanted to have a kid and fit in to her suburban little neighborhood and please her parents. Dean had met them once, and boy were they some work. But she doesn’t have the right to keep him out of Emma’s life.

He loves his little girl. He loves making cut out dolls with construction paper, playing dress up, having tea parties, racing hot wheels, taking her to the park. Anything that’ll put a smile on her face, Dean is there for it. He doesn’t think he’s seen a prettier smile on anyone.

The entire park was almost abandoned by the time Dean decided to give up on a nice sunny day out. Strolling over to Emma where she was playing with the little rolly tic tac toe game in a section of the playground, Dean squatted down next to her.

"All right baby girl, time to pack it in."

"I don't wanna go."

"The clouds don’t look too happy, I think they’re gonna rain on us."

"But it’s not raining now."

"But it will be soon."

Emma gave up on her tic tact toe game with some imaginary friend and turned to him, her face screwing up in a little pout that Dean knew would mean trouble as she folded her arms across her chest. She was wearing a little jean sundress over a white shirt that was smudged with dirt and sand now, her polka dot leggings scrunched up and wrinkled too. Dean reached out to take her hand, and she was off.

So it was a race through the playground then. Dean’s knees creaked a little as he shot off after her, his large frame not agile or slender enough to fit around all the corners and in all the nooks of the playground. He figured he needed to anticipate her next move and head it off, after he nearly knocked himself out running smack up against the monkey bars. Of course, then the rain did start to pour. It was just a little pitter patter and Dean was glad it wouldn’t be too bad … then the deluge came down.

He found Emma standing in the middle of the sandbox looking utterly offended, her shock slowly turning to horror. Dean snatched her up, wondering if they should try to make it back to his apartment - normally a fifteen minute walk but he could probably make it a ten minute run.

The rain was coming down so thick he figured he might as well just dart across the street to one of the shops there to take shelter. It was a pretty nice section of town, with happy little small time businesses in quaint shops. The one he happened to duck in to looked like some kind of hippy world market shop for home goods. Everything was bright warm colors, it smelled spicy, and it was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside as it stretched back and back. Dean managed to find a little display of outdoor furniture items, stools and chairs and tables with wildly patterned cushions.

Finding a tucked away little corner, he flopped down on a chair and tried to wrangle his crying child into a better mood. Emma was drenched. And unhappy. Taking off his flannel shirt, he wrapped her up and tried to soak up some of the water. The only down side was, his full sleeve tattoos were visible now in just a black t-shirt and passer by’s kept glaring at him and Emma, who would not stop sobbing hysterically.

Bouncing her on his knee, Dean shushed her, weighing the merits of running through the freaking monsoon going on outside, or finding something in the store to bribe her with. At least it was summer, the wet was just wet, they were plenty warm. Even if Emma sounded like a dying seagull.

"C’mon baby girl, you wanna try and make it home in that? We can wait it out here."

Her answer was lost in babbling and hiccuping.

"Why don’t we have a scavenger hunt, huh? Just look at all the neat things they have here."

Emma was crying, her little eyes scrunched close and she wasn’t even looking around.

"Sweetheart you gotta calm down, you’re turning red."

Some creepy guy in a trench coat walked by them, staring a little too hard.

Dean rubbed circles on Emma’s back and pushed the little blond curls out of her face, and thankfully her jagged crying fit was starting to calm to a more low key whimpering.

Creepy guy came back. Correction, hot creepy guy. He stopped in front of them, bright blue eyes regarding Dean, shuffling from one foot to another. The guy held out a bottle of something in one hand, the other arm clutching a pillow to his side.

"They have very good juice here."

Dean stared at him, torn between ‘why is this stranger offering me juice’ and ‘holy crap is he blushing’.

"I uh, I just bought that, it’s still sealed."

Dean reached out tentatively, with a “Thanks”, taking the offering and turning it around to read the ingredients label while Emma squirmed in his lap, quieting down a little and studying the guy.

"There’s no high corn fructose corn syrup, it’s sweetened with fruit juice, all organic, no additives or preservatives. "

Dean twisted the cap off, with that little snick of the safety seal being broken. “I’m Dean. What’s your name?”

He tasted it himself, and damn, he was more of a beer or coke kind of guy but that was good juice

"Castiel."

"Cas. Hey. And this is Emma."

Cas had a little smile on his face, head tilting to the side a bit as he gave a small wave. “Hello Emma.”

Emma pouted, and Dean offered her the juice bottle, holding it up for her to sip out of. She clutched at it with her little hands and drank noisily, quieting down and finally settling on his lap.

"Dude, thank you, we got caught in the rain and I just could not get her to calm down. "

"That’s understandable. I’ll probably loiter in this store until the storm passes."

"Do you come here a lot?"

"I do, they have the best raw honey."

"I don’t think I’ve ever been in here before, I take Emma to the park across the street though, probably seen this shop a hundred times before."

"Oh, do you ever go see the Shakespeare summer performances at the amphitheater over there?"

"They have outdoor plays there?"

"Yes, it’s a summer tradition."

"Huh. I might have to check it out."

Emma pushed the juice bottle away, and Dean replaced the cap as she squirmed out of his lap, still wearing his plaid shirt like a cape as she stepped up to Cas, coming up to barely past his knees and tugging on his trench coat. Cas stooped down to her level.

"Thank you."

The smile that split across his face put little crinkles in the corners of his eyes.

"You’re very welcome."

Emma was such a polite girl, usually sweet and well tempered. She held out her hand for a handshake, Cas’ big hand engulfing hers as he took the introductory handshake very seriously. Dean was watching them with a little ache in his chest, and yeah, he had been watching too many Disney movies lately, when a lady with a cart stopped next to the patio chair he was sitting in.

She had dark wavy hair tumbling down her back, a purple tank top on and Dean noted the intricate pattern of tattoos down her slender arms with interest. She looked at the man in the trench coat having a hushed conversation with the little girl, and scowled.

Standing next to Dean’s shoulder she looked at him like it was all his fault.

"Please tell me you didn’t let him hug the kid."

It sent off a ping of warning in his head. “What do you mean?”

"He gets way too attached to tiny things way too quickly."

"Huh? You know this guy."

"Oh yeah. Man, the first time I made the mistake of going into a pet shop with him, I didn’t make it out for two hours."

"My kid isn’t a pet."

"Hey, don’t take it the wrong way, just making friendly conversation."

Cas looked up, smiling at the woman standing next to Dean. He had been playing some kind of patty cake game with Emma, his pillow tucked under the crook of his arm.

"Whatcha got there Clarence?"

Cas - or Clarence? - was still crouched at Emma’s level, held up the pillow for the woman to see. It was light blue with a fat yellow bumble bee on the front. The woman groaned.

"We don’t need more throw pillows."

"But it has a bee on it."

"Yeah, I know, so does like two thirds of the things in our apartment."

"It’s on sale."

Dean looked between the two of them, and he wondered how this lady could be such a hardass to ignore the kicked puppy dog face on Cas. Dean wanted to buy him all the bee pillows in the store. If it wouldn’t be weird for one grown man to buy another grown man - that he met like five minutes ago - throw pillows.

But the woman sighed and rolled her eyes, walking over to Cas and snatching the pillow from him, striding back to the cart and tossing it in. Cas’ smile was back full force.

"Thank you Meg."

He sounded very satisfied with himself, and turned back to playing patty cake with Emma.

Meg leaned against the cart, hips cocked back, looking between Dean and Cas. The way she stared at him made him squirm a little, and not in the completely unpleasant sort of way. This day was just turning out all kinds of weird, cause these two were obviously some kind of couple and Dean wasn’t sure what was going on. But Emma was giggling and seemed fascinated by Cas, and he could still hear the rain pounding down outside.

Meg stretched a hand out to him, her lips curled in a secret sort of smirk.

"I’m Meg."

"Dean. That’s Emma."

"I like your tattoos."

"Oh, thanks, I uh, I like yours too."

Meg smiled at him, propping an elbow up on the cart and resting her chin in the cup of her palm.

"You’re looking a bit flustered there Dean-o."

Dean shrugged, going for nonchalant, but his mouth was a little dry.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

Meg leaned in a little closer, lowering her voice a little.

"I bet you want to ask him out on a date, don’t you? Maybe a coffee date. Something wholesome and sickeningly sweet."

Dean stared at her in mortified shock. Ok, maybe, he was getting a little ahead of himself with the rapid flurry of thoughts he’d had about this cute guy that liked organic juice, but come on man, he was a grown up, he could control himself. There was no need to be calling him out for, for what even, saying hi to her boyfriend? That was a little too possessive there. But, she didn’t even come across as that jealous, just kind of, interested. What the fuck.

"Whoa, okay hey, slow it on down. I just met Cas, maybe ten minutes ago, and you two are clearly boyfriend girlfriend, so I have no intentions of, of anything."

"Yeah, you’re right, on some of it, and pretty dense aren’t you. Well, can’t have good looks like that without paying for it with something else."

"What are you talking about lady?"

"So. He’s my boyfriend. But, I don’t mind if my boyfriend has boyfriends, catch my drift pretty boy."

Dean was dumfounded.

"You, wait, so - “

"Don’t hurt yourself there."

"What are you saying?"

Meg glanced at Cas with something like fondness, eyes drifting to the bee pillow in the cart and back to Dean.

"You should ask him out. He never makes the first move."

"Are you serious?"

She shrugged, smiling lewdly, “I like to watch.”

"Wow, you are really forward."

"Some people call it a character flaw. I like to think of it as weeding out the weak."

Dean was slightly put off, and yet kind of in awe.

Looking over at Cas, he saw the two of them playing cat’s cradle or whatever those string games were that you did with two people. Although, Emma wasn’t that coordinated yet and it was mostly just getting tangled and messy. And why was Cas carrying around neon green yarn. So, so many questions.

The rain stopped abruptly outside, sun bursting through the clouds and making the world a bright cheery place again. Meg rolled her cart away from Dean, tapping Cas on the shoulder. He stood up and turned towards her, a whole head taller than her, and she spoke quietly to him before sauntering away. Dean just scowled at her - shapely - ass.

Standing and holding out a hand for Emma, who was still disentangling yarn from her hands in an engrossed way, she held her arms up to him and Dean pulled her up to hold her against his hip. He smiled at Cas, who smiled at him, and they were two stupid smiling idiots while Emma fell asleep in the crook of his arm.

"So uh, thanks again, for the juice."

"Of course."

Cas was staring at him, and Dean couldn’t really tell what was going on but neither of them were moving.

"I should get Emma home and get her in some dry clothes."

Cas nodded, tucking his hands into his trench coat, his little smile starting to slip.

Dean took a deep breath and screwed up his courage. God, he had been out of the game so long, he didn’t really know what signals he was putting off or how to read other people’s signals or what it was like to try and date and be a single parent and it was just really complicated. But he really wanted to sit down and talk to Cas, weird organic juice and bee pillow loving Cas who was freaking good with kids, and that wasn’t going to happen right now.

"So, do you uh, you wanna maybe get coffee sometime?"

There was that smile again, and it was definitely a close second to Emma’s.

"I’d like that very much Dean."

"Yeah, great, that’s uh, great."

Smooth Winchester . Like a five dollar bottle tequila.

"Here, why don’t we swap numbers and work out the details later."

Single handedly fishing his phone out, Dean passed it to Cas. He didn’t password protect it or anything like that. Cas programmed his number in, then made a call on it, presumably to himself.

"I’ll look forward to it. Maybe we could catch a play in the park?"

"Yeah, sure. I’ll … see you round Cas."

Cas smiled at him, all teeth and gum and eye crinkles and god did his nose get little crinkles too. Dean bumped into a patio table as he was trying to make his exit, biting back a curse as Emma squirmed in his hold but mercifully remained asleep. Catching sight of Meg down a few aisles leaning against the shelf snickering at the two of them, she gave Dean a snarky little wave and he gave her a nod.

Bumping the door with a hip to back out, Dean smiled to himself under the sun, feeling giddy and young and dopey like he hadn’t in what seemed like ages.


End file.
